THERE’S wrongness, and then there’s British nationalist commentator in the Scottish press wrongness. According to one prominent apologist for the British state last week, it’s not a Plan B that the independence movement needs, but rather a whole new prospectus.

Apparently this is because the coronavirus epidemic has made everyone in Scotland realise we are utterly dependent upon the good Government of Westminster in order to see us through the crisis. We’re all in this together, safety and security of the UK, one united British family, raise the bunting! Hurrah!

Oh. Hing oan a sec until I recalibrate my multiverse portal gun settings to this universe.

There have been numerous polls this year in Scotland, the majority of which show most voters want independence. One recent poll showed a large majority of voters in Scotland would support an alternative strategy for bringing about a legitimate vote on independence in the likely event that Downing Street will continue in its obstinate refusal to acknowledge Scottish democracy.

The reason for this is because of the utter shambles that passes for British governance. Where it has been possible to make a wrong step, the British Government has leapt enthusiastically into wrongness.

The independence movement doesn’t need to develop a new prospectus for independence. Boris Johnson and the Conservatives are handing one to us on a commemorative plate bearing the name of a British imperialist slave trader.

One of the most repeated arguments of the Better Together campaign back in 2014 was the perceived safety and stability of the UK. Scotland, they told us, depended upon the UK and its solid democratic traditions in order to ensure that we didn’t descend into a fascist dystopia. Scotland, they told us, depended upon the UK and its traditions of tolerance and fair play in order to ensure that we were able to suppress our base Caledonian instincts. Scotland, they told us, depended upon the UK in order to ensure we could enjoy a global reputation for the quality of our governance and institutions.

So how’s all that working out now then? It’s not a claim which has aged at all well. Back in 2014, the independence campaign was mostly concerned with asserting the undoubted truth that Scotland could become a perfectly successful and prosperous independent northern European nation, a nation just like those other small independent states in northern Europe. We were concerned to normalise the idea of independence among a Scottish public which for generations had been taught to regard the notion as the property of crazed beardy men in kilts who ran about the hillsides of a weekend pretending to be Pictish warriors.

What the independence movement didn’t do much of in 2014 was making the claim that remaining a part of the UK was a danger to Scotland, that it risked our democracy, that it was the road to fascism.

It was a claim that, had we made it in 2014, our opponents would have laughed out loud and reacted with derision. They’re still laughing, but that’s got more to do with the demented hysteria of people who have long since lost touch with reality than anything else. Their desperation is palpable.

Now, the argument that being a part of the UK makes Scotland less safe is an argument that receives a sympathetic hearing. No-one can look at the way this British Government has handled the virus crisis and argue they’ve made a decent fist of it.

The UK already has the highest death toll in Europe from the virus. Last week a report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found the UK is also likely to have the worst affected economy.

The fall in the UK’s national income due to the epidemic will be worse than those experienced by Spain, Italy, France, Germany, or the USA. Remember in 2014 when Scotland was promised that by being a part of the UK we could have the best of both worlds? Now we know that we’ve got the worst of all worlds.

That’s bad enough, but this Conservative Government of reckless zealots and chaos mongers has decided to compound the difficulty by pressing ahead with Brexit and has refused to concede any need for an extension to the transitional period we are currently in. A substantial majority of people in Scotland want a delay to Brexit, 64% according to a recent poll. The Scottish Government and Labour-led Welsh Government have called on the British Government to seek an extension to the transitional period. Their appeals have been rebuffed. The interests of the disaster capitalists who fund the Conservative Party cannot be compromised.

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Meanwhile, the quality of our democracy is seriously threatened by the British state. The man who occupies the position of part-time Prime Minister has a long and inglorious history of racist, sexist, and homophobic commentary. Together with a British media which has given a platform to the far right, his example has emboldened the xenophobes, racists and bigots of British nationalism. We see the result in the riots in the streets of London and the shameful scenes in Glasgow on Sunday. So-called Loyalists who aren’t loyal enough not to break the law.

They are creatures of British nationalism. British nationalism owns them. But supporters of British nationalism in Scotland won’t take responsibility for them. These are the demons the British state’s inability to confront its own reality and nature have unleashed upon us. Let’s call them what they are. There were no clashes between protesters in Glasgow on Sunday. The Black Lives Matter protest had been cancelled. There were only right-wing racist British nationalist thugs running riot, threatening passers-by and the police.

When those who adhere to British nationalism are incapable of recognising they are in fact nationalists, then there’s no hope at all of them challenging and removing the bigots, racists, and xenophobes in their midst. It’s often said the first step to dealing with a problem is to recognise you have one – British nationalism isn’t capable of recognising that it has a problem. It’s not even capable of recognising that it is in fact a variety of nationalism. And that is why Scotland can never be safe within the British state.

We have our new prospectus for independence already. It’s a prospectus to deliver Scotland from the right-wing insanity into which the UK is descending. It’s a prospectus to defend democratic standards. It’s a prospectus for toleration and moderation. It’s a prospectus to put the need of the people before the greed of the few. Because on all those counts the British state has failed.